The World According To Carl

According to published reports, liberal talk radio network will declare bankruptcy this Friday. With the over-inflated salaries of Al Franken and Randi Rhodes, several internal scandals (Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club for example), various high level executives leaving, big layoffs earlier this week and the fact that Air America could no longer afford to pay the Associated Press for wire service coverage it’s no surprise that Air America is financially bankrupt. After all they’ve been morally bankrupt from day one. Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer has been following the downward spiral…or should that be nosedive…of Air America and has more details in the bankruptcy announcement and possible sale. Michelle Malkin has also been at the forefront along with Maloney covering Air America’s demise and has comments about their impending bankruptcy announcement. Other noteworthy blogs with entries about Air America’s bankruptcy announcement include Wonkette, NewsBusters, Hot Air, Riehl World View, Ace of Spades HQ, Wizbang! and even OlbermannWatch.

The blog Think Progress has an article on this issue and although they get the basic facts concerning Air America’s impending bankruptcy, they do try to put a liberal spin on the matter utilizing some disingenuousness. For example, in the article they claim

The right wing is sure to seize on Air America’s financial woes as a sign that progressive talk radio is unpopular. In fact, Air America succeeded at creating something that didn’t exist: the progressive talk radio format. That format is now established and strong and will continue with or without Air America.

First off, they can’t even be honest call it what it actually is…liberal talk radio. Instead they have to try to rename it something more palatable since they consider the word “liberal” to be accepted by the general public as something negative. So they try to hide its true nature by using a different name. Secondly, the author tries to claim “right wing is sure to seize on Air America’s financial woes as a sign that progressive talk radio is unpopular”. Actually the fact of extremely low ratings on a nationwide setting by liberal talk radio is a sign that liberal talk radio is unpopular. Look at the numbers, folks. Liberal talk radio is routinely trounced by conservative and even libertarian talk shows in the ratings in just about every market across the country. Plus look at how many liberal talk shows that have come and gone over the years. Anyone remember Jim Hightower’s show? How about Mario Cuomo’s? Alan Dershowitz’s? I could go on and on, folks, with the lengthy list of failed liberal talk shows that have long since been forgotten. But conservative talk shows like Rush Limbaugh’s and Sean Hannity’s among others are thriving. And more are being created each year. Facts are facts…liberal talk radio fails on a national level because the American public finds little to nothing to embrace. Only a small percentage of listeners tune in to liberal talk radio (usually on NPR) and if the listeners aren’t there, the radio stations will find something else to run that will attract listeners. That is a simple lesson is business. If you don’t offer what the public wants, you will fail. And liberal talk radio doesn’t offer what the public wants. It’s that simple.

Also the author tries to falsely attribute the origin of liberal talk network radio to Air America. Again, the facts show the author to be completely wrong and dishonest. Liberal talk radio has been around for decades, folks. Whether it be from NPR or Pacifica or PRI, it’s been around and constitutes only a small fraction of the talk radio listener spectrum.

Finally, the author of the article really goes into fantasyland when it’s claimed “That format [liberal talk radio] is now established and strong and will continue with or without Air America.”

What color is the sky in that person’s world? Liberal talk radio is a strong format? Either the author is being completely and willfuly dishonest or is completely ignorant of the facts. I’m betting on the former. The facts definitively prove that liberal talk radio is a weak format that loses money consistently across the board. The trail of defunct liberal talk shows litter the radio road like so much rotting garbage. Air America is just another failed attempt. Liberals just don’t get it. Instead of taking responsibility for their failure to thrive in the talk radio medium, they instead point fingers of blame at conservatives, advertisers, etc. They just don’t get the fact that what those liberal talk shows offer (mostly attacks, smear campaigns and a whole lot of negativity) causes most Americans to tune to other stations. The numbers prove it. The author of this little liberal spin piece is hiding in his own little fantasy world and refuses to seek reality. Even the website, “Think Progress” is more apt to be named “Think Liberal.”

But I’m not holding my breath. They’re just being dishonest. Now liberals will have only CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Pacifica, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The L.A. Times, etc. as their outlets.

I wonder how long before liberals start crying out that it’s all part of a vast right-wing conspiracy and the demise of Air America was all George Bush’s fault.

UPDATE: Randi Rhodes has, on her own show, flatly denied that Air America will declare bankruptcy. Al Franken refused to comment directly on the topic when asked. Well see what happens Friday.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.